I slept like crap last night. I was scared that I would oversleep this morning and miss my race. I’ve experienced this when I need to catch an early flight. Somehow my brain won’t let me really get to sleep lest I miss whatever the event happens to be the next morning. I don’t remember the last time I actually overslept something really important but, well,  tell that to my brain.

This morning’s race was an important one. It was a 5K and it was my ninth race in the 9+1 for qualifying for next year’s New York City marathon. For those of you who don’t know what 9+1, is, I’ll explain. You run 9 New York Road Runner sanctioned races and volunteer to help out at 1 (+1) and then you get guaranteed entry to the next year’s marathon. I decided that I needed to run a marathon this May after having run a half. And I embarked on doing 9+1. Today was my ninth race. This race was the end of that journey. If I missed it, I didn’t know what I would do.

Hence the awful sleep.

I got up at 6:15AM for an 8:45AM race. I walked to Atlantic and took the 4 train. I got to Grand Central at 7:15AM, which was way too early, and then jogged over to the start line at the UN. Then I just sort of meandered around. I got warm and stretched but then realized that I had an hour until the race.

I walked around. The East 40’s are a really nice area that I never go to. I’ve got to be honest, I was scared. I hadn’t been running that much lately so I didn’t know how I would do.

I had been told that this 5K was a great motivator for the marathon because you get to run through the actual New York City Marathon finish line.

Frankly, it wasn’t that great a motivator. I don’t know if other runners experience this but I was in a bit of a haze while running. I just wanted to run a good race. I wasn’t thinking about the fact that 42nd street was closed for us. I wasn’t thinking about the fact that we were all running through Central Park on a Saturday morning. I wasn’t thinking about how amazing all of that was.

After finishing and walking towards the end where the road meets Central Park West at the Dakota, where John Lennon lived and was shot – how New York is that? – I checked my time and saw that I had PR’d the 5K by 6 seconds. I felt good during the race but not great. So, it was amazing to see that I had actually done better than I had thought.

Tomorrow I’m going to wake up early and watch the runners run up 4th avenue by my apartment. I have three friends running it. I’m weirdly excited. Maybe it’s because I want my friends to do well. Maybe it’s because there’s an excitement in New York about the whole thing. But maybe it’s because next year, it’ll be me.